Forney ISD welcomes first students to "The OC," its new 350,000-square-foot campus
FORNEY (CBSNewsTexas.com) — It is billed as the biggest career and college school in the nation.
Forney ISD recently welcomed its first students to what's called "The OC," a 350,000-square-foot campus that includes a mall, a theater and an arena.
Students will be heavily involved in running those along with more than 25 stores that will be open to the public.
Among those is Blooms, a floral design store that will open in two weeks, staffed by Forney high schoolers Beverly Hackenjos and Carrie Curtis, who plan careers in that industry.
"I got into it, I literally fell in love with the flowers...I never liked something more," Hackenjos said.
"That really is my dream, and I really have been looking into it," said Curtis.
Students are heavily involved in the operations of not just this store, but more than two dozen others—some of them already open—inside The OC, which fittingly sits on the corner of Innovation Boulevard and Inspiration Way.
"You see a lot of these career and technology centers, but ours is just a little bit different," said Forney ISD Superintendent Justin Terry.
He showed off the district's new jaw-dropping facility with a shopping mall on the first floor that includes restaurants along with a beauty salon, an automotive repair center and a preschool.
"There's a theme that runs through every program that we have in The OC and it's entrepreneurism," Terry said. "So we're hoping that our kids not only learn how to cut hair or learn how to be veterinarians, but they can run a veterinary hospital."
Students who want to get an early start on their careers or are still looking to find their passion have almost unlimited options.
"I feel like in this class, I've learned things that we don't really learn in high school that are almost necessities, that are just kind of left out," said student Jaden Leyva.
Student Natalia Meade said she doesn't currently know what her career plans are yet, but appreciates that The OC lets kids explore different pathways.
More than 2,000 students will spend part of their school days at The OC, getting hands-on training and making money from the goods and services they sell to the public.
Work is still underway, though, to build everything from recording studios to bakeries. Students will also help operate a 650-person theater and a 6,000-seat arena.
"There's not anything like this in the nation that we've found," Terry said.
